Lots of different odds and sods are tampered with over time to see if they can be improved, and some fall flat on their arse. For example, moving the now-defunct Top Of The Pops around to different time slots to try and save it from the axe.

Needless to say, flogging an already-shite programme around different slots in the TV schedule didn’t help, and letting ITV have Match Of The Day for a season was painful enough, too. Not even the sound of Bono singing us in could save it, and the music industry was clearly in the wrong for letting Paris Hilton having a go at trying to be a singer. She really should have just stuck to her day job. Which is, er…

But some concoctions have proved a great hit, not only with the smiley folks in the hecklerspray dungeon, but with most normal people, too. Cadburys Creme Egg bars are lovely – when they're not contaminated with salmonella – and so was the idea of bringing back Bullseye, even if it was on Challenge TV. Music is often compounded to one genre. Be it indie, dance, reggae, folk or whatever, you tend to get lumped into one category. However, our Trawl this week has led us to a band that belongs in both genres of electro and punk. Warren Suicide is their name. 

Warren Suicide are quite an unusual band in the way they're set up. Let’s try and make this simple. In a nutshell, the band is based in Berlin, but the people who make up the band come from a whole manner of different backgrounds. From what we can gather through our piss-poor research, they're all from different backgrounds and countries and we have no idea how they met. Oh, and their frontman isn’t actually real, but a cartoon character called… Warren Suicide! 

OK, before you automatically start complaining and making assumptions, please don't! Warren Suicide are not, we repeat, not a rip-off of the side project of that bloke who was an inferior Britpop band to Oasis. Yes, they aren't cons of Gorillaz. People just think Gorillaz started the whole animation band thing because they made it popular. Of course we all know this is all down to the fact that they had huge financial backing where this week's band in our Trawl doesn’t. Unlike mega-popstars Gorillaz, Warren Suicide don’t push the entire band as the marketing tool to sell themselves. Instead, they use the fictional Warren Suicide character as a solo artist and the three human members play behind him as some kind of backing band. Crazy and confusing we know, but – hey – it’s good and that’s what matters in our book. So when you see the upfront image of some crazy-looking cartoon, remember, it's the work of three people trying to push the boundaries of art and music. 

On to the music. Well, traditionally the thought of guitars and electronics even crossing paths would be laughed at by many. Punk has the hard-edged attitude of roughty-toughty types who drink 17 pints of lager before even feeling the effects and electronic musicians are usually scorned for apparently hammering a few keys on a laptop to produce lots of noise. Coz apparently, if it hasn’t got guitars in, it isn’t real music. But now this stereotype is vanishing. 

The cleverly-named track Warren Suicide starts off with a blistering electronic synth with the undertone licks of a classic guitar anthem. The menacing and repetitive tones of “Hello hello, my name is Warren Suicide” echo straight through and stick to the brain like chewing gum does to your brand-new trainers. Listening to the samples may not indicate how well the worlds of electronics and punk work together.

Seeing them live is much better. An absolute dog’s age ago, this writer dragged a couple of friends to a local, shoddy and tacky indie nightclub which redeemed itself for booking Warren Suicide. None of the kids were expecting what Warren Suicide brought to the stage. A mixture of keyboards and complicated-looking instruments were all set up for them to pound away on. When the German trio graced the stage, they came on with big paper cut-outs of their fictional creation on their faces. Screaming at the mic about them being slaves to their creation, they startled the crowd with insane guitar licks and fast and frenzied electronics.  

Its always funny at indie gigs when any type of electronic music is played. Be it from Underworld, Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy, the hardcore of them will stop and look around all dazed and confused at the lack of guitars directly involved. This is the type of reaction Warren Suicide got, but as the set went on, more people began to dig their sound. It was only a short gig with them touring a mini EP, but it was all good.  

Check the Warren Suicide MySpace page for samples of the music, videos to some of the songs and an extensive biography on the band and what they're up to. 

Warren Suicide MySpace page